If you have a Dairy Drafter/Sort Gate, the drafting (sorting) configuration will have been set up during the installation. The drafting configuration has been customised to match your farm management practices and should not be changed without the assistance of the Datamars Customer Success team or Smart Farming Support team, see contact details below.
Even though the drafting configuration shouldn't be changed, it is important that you understand what the settings are and how they work.
Key concepts
Drafting times
The drafting times are set up to match the farm management practices e.g.
A 24 hr a day dairy operation has three shifts - morning, afternoon and night. Three draft times would be set up to match these shifts.
A seasonal dairy farm has a morning milking session, a daytime break, an afternoon milking session, then a night break. Four draft times would be set up to match these periods.
Note: For all farm operation types (24 hr or seasonal), the drafting times set must cover the complete 24 hour period. This is so that whatever time of day that animals are being drafted e.g. in between milking times, there will be a draft time-slot available to allocate the animal to.
Reasons for drafting
If you are using the Dairy Drafter with Active Tags for monitoring, a drafting time can be set to automatically draft animals for heat, health or BOTH heat and health reasons.
If a draft time is not being used for automatic drafting or you are using EID tags for identification, not Active Tags, the draft reason should be left blank. This means that the draft time can be used for any reason.
Heat drafting rules
If you are drafting for heat, you may want to further define the rules for drafting. For more information, see Configuring drafting (sorting).
Draft pens
Normally, the number of draft pens will match the physical layout on your farm. They are set up to match the farm management practices e.g. a farm has 2 drafting pens beside the drafter for 3-way drafting. Animals on heat are drafted to the left draft pen and animals with potential health issues to the right draft pen.
Draft configuration examples
On this seasonal farm there are four drafting times:
1 | Morning milking | 06:00-10:00 | Auto drafting for heat and health. Animals are inseminated or given a health check/treatment. |
2 | Daytime | 10:00-15:00 | Drafting as per draft list. |
3 | Afternoon milking | 15:00-17:00 | Auto drafting for health. Animals are given a health check/treatment. |
4 | Night | 17:00-06:00 | Drafting as per draft list. |
On this 24 hour a day dairy operation there are three drafting times:
1 | Shift 1 | 06:00-14:00 | Auto drafting for heat and health. Animals are inseminated or given a health check/treatment. |
2 | Shift 2 | 14:00-22:00 | Auto drafting for health. Animals are given a health check/treatment. |
3 | Shift 3 | 22:00-06:00 | Drafting as per draft list. |
To view the drafting configuration:
Click Farm Settings and Drafting.
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Having trouble?
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